Whether on skis or a snowboard, everyone wants to be able to carve a turn as they traverse down the ski slope. Carving a turn amounts to putting the skis or snowboard on edge and then shooting through a smooth arc. World cup skiers carve their turns as they thread the gates on a slope. Advanced snowboarders carve turns as they lean deep into the mountain and drive the edge of their boards hard into the slope. Most skiers and snowboarders, however, do not carve their turns, but rather skid their ski or snowboard tails through a scraping turn.
To master the art of turn carving, the snowboarder or skier must drive the snowboard or ski into the slope hard enough to cause it to bend to form the turn carving arc. It follows then that the stiffer the snowboard or ski, the more difficult it will be to turn. Although it will be easier to form a turn carving arc the more flexible the snowboard or ski is made, the snowboard or ski will also be less stable the more flexible the snowboard or ski is made. This decrease in stability is more pronounced in a snowboard because of the snowboard's wide body. As a result of its wide body, the ends of the snowboard will naturally tend to twist before the snowboard bends as the edge of the snowboard is driven into the mountain to make a turn. Thus, as the snowboard becomes more flexible, it will more readily twist and, as a result, more readily vibrate.
To attempt to make the snowboard easier to turn while maintaining its stability, the snowboard has been constructed with parabolic side cuts to form an arcuate turning or running edge. Although the parabolic side cuts currently utilized with conventional snowboards may make the snowboard easier to turn, they are not likely to enable the average snowboarder to readily carve a turn. Because of the configuration of the conventional snowboard, the parabolic side cuts cannot be made drastic enough to significantly reduce the likelihood that the snowboard will skid through a scraping turn instead of holding an edge through a carving arc. For example, if a drastic side cut is incorporated into the snowboard such that the waist or midsection of the board is cut narrower than the length of the snowboarder's feet, the snowboarder's toes or heels will undesirably drag in the snow as the snowboarder turns the snowboard on edge and leans into a turn. If, on the other hand, the width of the ends of the snowboard are increased to provide a more drastic side cut, the torsional forces that cause twisting and vibration during a turn will also increase and make the board less stable.
Parabolic side cuts are also unlikely to enable the average snowboarder to readily carve a turn because a conventional snowboard tends to be inherently incapable of holding an edge through a turn. Because of the lateral spacing of the snowboarder's feet, the portion of the snowboard between the snowboarder's feet will not flex or will tend to flex in a direction opposite to the direction that the snowboard flexes outside of the snowboarder's feet as the snowboarder attempts to turn the snowboard. This non-flex or counter directional flex results in a negative running edge between the snowboarder's feet. In conventional snowboards, the ratio of a positive running edge located outside the snowboarder's feet to a negative running edge located between the snowboarder's feet is approximately 1-1.5:1.
Because of the relative size of a conventional snowboard's negative running edge, the negative running edge tends to prevent the snowboard from following a path defined by a turn carving arc and tends to counteract the influence of the parabolic side cut. Thus, the conventional snowboard is not likely to enable the average snowboarder to carve a turn with any predictability.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a snowboard that facilitates turn carving by increasing the ratio of the positive running edge to the negative running edge without reducing the snowboard's stability, that provides better edge hold through a turn, that performs more predictably and, additionally, that tends to reduce vibration in the end of the snowboard during turning.